## Facts

- An employer that managed and produced the Los Angeles Auto Show filed an H-1B petition to employ a beneficiary as a human resources manager.
- The proffered duties included hiring and recruitment, drafting a personnel policy manual, training and staff development, developing compensation plans, preparing personnel budgets, maintaining employment records, and implementing personnel policies.
- The beneficiary held a bachelor’s degree in psychology from a Philippine institution.
- USCIS denied the petition, concluding the position did not qualify as a specialty occupation.
- The employer appealed to the Administrative Appeals Office (AAO), which dismissed the appeal.
- During related federal district court litigation, the AAO reopened the matter on its own motion, requested additional evidence about the duties’ complexity and specialization, and issued a new decision addressing specialty-occupation eligibility.

## Issues

1. Whether the proffered human resources manager position qualified as a “specialty occupation” under the H-1B statute and regulations.
2. Whether the petitioner’s evidence (including a detailed duty description and an academic opinion letter) established that the specific position required at least a bachelor’s degree in a specific specialty, or otherwise satisfied a regulatory specialty-occupation criterion.

## Decision

- The AAO concluded the petitioner did not establish that the position required a bachelor’s or higher degree in a specific specialty (or equivalent) as a minimum for entry.
- The AAO determined the position therefore was not a specialty occupation.
- The AAO upheld the denial of the H-1B petition.

## Legal Principles

- A specialty occupation requires (1) theoretical and practical application of a body of highly specialized knowledge and (2) at least a bachelor’s degree in a specific specialty (or equivalent) as the minimum for entry.
- A petitioner must satisfy at least one regulatory criterion for specialty-occupation classification (including that a specific-specialty degree is normally required; is common in the industry or the job is uniquely complex; is the employer’s normal requirement; or the duties are so specialized and complex that a specific-specialty degree is usually associated with the role).
- General occupational evidence indicating that an occupation commonly accepts a range of degree fields weighs against finding that a “specific specialty” degree is normally required.
- Expert opinion letters may be considered but do not control where they are unsupported, conclusory, or inconsistent with objective occupational evidence.

## Conclusion

The AAO upheld USCIS’s denial because the employer did not prove that its human resources manager position for the Los Angeles Auto Show required a bachelor’s degree in a specific specialty or otherwise met a regulatory specialty-occupation criterion for H-1B classification.


In re _____ (AAO 2006), 2006 Immig. Rptr. LEXIS 18540